Professor Meares, Members of Police Task Force Meet with President Obama

On March 2, 2015, President Barack Obama met with the Task Force on 21st Century Policing to discuss its recommendations to help communities and law enforcement agencies strengthen trust and collaboration, while continuing to reduce crime.

The Task Force includes a diverse array of experts from the law enforcement community, academia, youth activists, as well as community and civil rights leaders. Tracey L. Meares, the Walton Hale Hamilton Professor of Law at Yale Law School, is a member of the Task Force and was present at the meeting. Read more about the meeting.

Earlier this year, Meares was enlisted by the Department of Justice for the launch of the National Initiative for Building Community Trust and Justice. As part of that initiative, Meares and Professor Tom Tyler launched The Justice Collaboratory, which brings together scholars and researchers of diverse theoretical and methodological orientations at Yale University and elsewhere to work on issues related to institutional reform and policy innovation and advancement.

Meares and Tyler will work directly with other members of the consortium to design intervention programs in six pilot communities around the country based on existing research concerning procedural justice, implicit bias, and race and reconciliation.

Meares is one of the leading national theorists on police legitimacy and, in particular, how racial narratives influence police relationships with minority communities and how deliberate attention to these issues can influence community compliance with the law.